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You are here: Home / Archives for book marketing

Book Marketing


Book marketingBelow you'll find links to all the information about book marketing that’s available on our website, book, videos, and blog.

We gained a lot of experience from creating Book Design Made Simple. You can learn from our successes and avoid our pitfalls! We’ve written blog posts about entering book award contests and publishing a second edition, as well as explained a library marketing scheme that worked well for us.

 

Excerpts from Book Design Made Simple

  • Book trim size: how to choose the right trim size
  • Subject categories: how and where to get them for your book

 

Blog posts

Below are all the blog posts tagged with Book Marketing, starting with the most recent post.

Designing a book spine

March 7, 2022 By Glenna Collett 1 Comment

book spine examplesFront covers attract and back covers sell—we’ve said it before. At the same time, a book spine should broadcast.

Most books in stores and libraries are shelved with their spines facing out. If a book has a great title and a well-designed spine, it’ll attract a lot more eyes than its neighbor on the shelf. So here’s how to accomplish that for your book. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Book Cover Design Tagged With: book marketing, color, text frames

Navigating Amazon KDP ads and keywords

November 9, 2021 By Erika Sharma 1 Comment

Researching Amazon KDP keywords, showing glasses and a notebook.The advent of the internet has changed the landscape of books. Self-publishing is getting easier all the time, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The biggest hurdle you’ll face as an online bookseller is marketing. Every self-publishing author in 2021 needs to know how to do keyword research! We’ll explain the basics of Amazon KDP ads and then show you how to find the most effective Amazon KDP keywords that will sell your books. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book marketing

Amazon updates for book authors

November 8, 2021 By Fiona Raven Leave a Comment

Amazon update showing detail of A+Content.Trying to keep up with Amazon updates? So are we! There’ve been a few changes lately, so we’re discussing them here to keep you up to date. The main Amazon updates for book authors are: 1) EPUBs are replacing MOBIs for reflowable Kindle ebooks, 2) hardcover binding is now an option, and 3) A+ Content is available for your book’s product page on Amazon. Let’s break it down for you.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book binding, book marketing, ebooks, ISBN

ISBNs for self publishers: how to get and assign them

May 10, 2021 By Fiona Raven 4 Comments

Labelling the parts of an ISBN.International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) are important for self publishers. Some printers, print-on-demand publishers, and ebook vendors will offer to provide you with an ISBN, but it’s usually better to get your own. Part of the ISBN includes a “publisher number,” which is assigned to a specific publisher. Therefore, if you allow another company to provide the ISBN, then that company will be listed as the publisher of your book.

We’ll explain everything you need to know: how, where, and why to get your own block of ISBNs, and how to assign them to your print and digital books.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book marketing, copyright, ebooks, ISBN

Book distribution 101

November 8, 2020 By Glenna Collett 1 Comment

books in a book distribution warehouseYou’ve published a book—or you will soon—and you know that you’ll need to get it to readers. But how? That basic question is what we’re going to clue you in on. The very concept of book distribution confounds a lot of first-time publishers, so we’re hoping to make it all clear here.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book marketing, book printing, ebooks

How much does it cost to self-publish?

January 13, 2020 By Glenna Collett 11 Comments

dollar and pound signs indicating book publishing expensesThe path to a high quality self-published book is strewn with expenses. Annoying, maybe, but necessary. So, how much does it cost to self-publish? We’ve discussed most of the cost issues in the past, but here I’m pulling them all together so you won’t stumble on any surprises as you make your way.

Please don’t let anyone persuade you that you can produce a printed book that is up to publishing industry standards—and also market it—for free, because that’s simply not true.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book marketing, book printing, copyright, ebooks, images, ISBN

Design a coffee table book

November 11, 2019 By Glenna Collett 21 Comments

coffee table books on a coffee tableCoffee table books. Are they a blast from the past? No, actually, folks are still publishing them, and you can, too. Do you have an idea for a coffee table book of poetry and photography? About a specific artist or a place you love? About your local history, or something completely different? With good planning and design, your book could become very successful. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Book Page Design Tagged With: book marketing, book printing, color, images, text frames

Your book needs CIP data—here’s why

March 11, 2019 By Glenna Collett 9 Comments

CIP data from Book Design Made SimpleI used to think that a copyright page didn’t really need cataloging-in-publication (CIP) data in order to be complete. But I was wrong.

But wait—what is CIP data? It’s the block of information on a book’s copyright page that resembles a library catalog entry, like the one shown here. If the Library of Congress created it, it’s called CIP data. If a private cataloging service created it, it’s called PCIP (Publisher’s CIP) data. Since they look basically the same on the page, I’ll simply refer to both as CIP data for our purposes. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book marketing, copyright

Your book promotion materials

October 8, 2018 By Glenna Collett 4 Comments

Book promotion materials such as bookmarks and rack cards.A book is a wonderful thing! But of course it’s not much good unless people read it, and to make that happen, sometimes you need to go beyond social media and word of mouth. Printed book promotion materials can help you do that, so in this article we hope to help you find just the right combination of giveaways for your book.

One of the advantages of doing your own book design and typesetting is that you can also produce your own book promotion materials. To reduce the learning curve for you, InDesign Secrets offers free Adobe InDesign templates for all kinds of publications.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book marketing, ISBN

Our book sales: Three years in

September 10, 2018 By Glenna Collett 8 Comments

Book sales depicted by a stack of booksThree years ago this month, the first edition of Book Design Made Simple rolled off the press. We expected book sales to start strong and increase immediately, but that didn’t happen. In this article we share with you our successes and failures, how plans can go awry, and about winging it. We hope you can skip some of the book marketing mistakes we made and go straight to success with your book as a self-published author. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book marketing, book printing

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Recent Posts

  • Writing in InDesign: Why and how May 9, 2022
  • Designing a book spine March 7, 2022
  • What type size should I use? January 10, 2022
  • Navigating Amazon KDP ads and keywords November 9, 2021
  • Amazon updates for book authors November 8, 2021
  • What does a children’s book editor do? August 31, 2021
  • Book binding basics July 12, 2021

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